It's not what you know...

I am a daily reader of FirstRead - which is MSNBC's daily blog of political events with Chuck Todd (NBC political director). One of the featured posts today is by Luke Russert. Luke Russert is the son of the late Tim Russert, and has been hired by NBC to be a special commentator for this election season. NBC explains that he brings with him, a younger (college-aged) perspective.
In this post, Luke Russert states the following:

Earlier this morning on the Today Show (see below) I misspoke and made what is without a doubt, quite simply a dumb comment. Matt Lauer talked about UVA being a smart school and whether or not it could be considered a microcosm of Virginia at large. I said UVA had a lot of smart kids and so the school was leaning Obama.
I MEANT to say that many of the kids who go to UVA are from affluent, highly educated households who are leaning Obama and hence their kids lean Obama. Plenty of smart college kids will vote for John McCain from UVA, and plenty of smart kids go to Virginia Tech or George Mason and they, too, could end up being big Obama voters. Today was one of my first lessons in the perils of live television...lesson learned.

I loved Tim Russert and have not enjoyed Meet the Press since his passing. I am sure that Luke Russert is a good person and has much potential. What I disagree with is NBC's blatant expression of cronyism and nepotism to put this nice individual into this kind of role much to early. There are many good students out there who have majored in journalism and television who are not getting this opportunity. To me, it seems unfair for NBC to not allow Luke Russert to work in the field and get some experience, without having the whole viewing audience witness it first hand.

Cronyism and nepotism may pay off for some, but the benefits are for the few and not for the whole. Look at the recent fiasco on Wall Street. Talk about an example of when cronyism fails. The last 8 years of this presidency is also a perfect illustration of when nepotism "goes bad."

I know that having this nice kid on television does not compare to the collapse of the American economy or the dwindling respect that others have for us here in the U.S., but to me - it is a representation of at least part of the cause that got us to this place.